I’M GREETED by the sight of several litres of pig’s blood being poured into bags on a hospital drip-stand. The red splashes on the wall and the stainless steel counters make the place feel like a butcher’s shop, but it is something altogether different. This is James Fildes’s workshop, where he is trying to reanimate detached body parts.

Based at the University of Manchester, UK, Fildes is mainly working with pig legs and organs sourced from a local abattoir. But he is also experimenting with human organs deemed unsuitable for transplants, when …